


Out Of The Wasteland

by Senket



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Space Seed, TOS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-25
Updated: 2013-07-25
Packaged: 2017-12-21 08:50:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/898316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senket/pseuds/Senket
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Khan wakes again, Kirk is allowed to deal with him 'at his discretion.' Kirk is growing to be the fair-minded captain he was always going to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out Of The Wasteland

To say that Khan had crashed through Kirk’s life had evidently been an understatement. In the first days of their acquaintance, the man had caused him to suffer through the death of Pike, a shuttle crash, a Klingon battle, repeated near death, and the near loss of his entire crew. Three times. Not to mention Bones and Carol nearly blowing themselves to bits, Carol’s fractured knee, actual death by radiation- a death he understood to be extremely high up on the 'this fucking hurts' scale of possible deaths- and then the entirety of the fucking USS Vengeance decimating San Francisco.

To say they had gotten off to a bad start was such an incredible understatement he couldn't even wrap his head around it.

But there was just one thing. One black seed lodged in his spine that never let him sleep, not with Khan’s blood in his veins. An echoing memory of the moments between. Khan’s voice still clear, even after Kirk’s anger had drained.

‘Is there anything you would not do for your family?’

In the end they were the same. The very same. Khan’s family had been torn from him by the Admiral, nearly killed. After two hundred years of sleep… And who was to say Kirk wouldn’t have done the same? (He thought he would have, tormented and alone with no other choice. Less affected by the savagery of an age long past but so thoroughly pointless without them.)

Khan’s cryogenic pod seemed to malfunction without explanation, months later. Starfleet, terrified of the man and of what he might do, sent the Enterprise after him. The crew knew him, after all. Kirk had no doubt the ‘malfunction’ had been less than accidental. He was a very convincing man, after all, Khan. Convincing, thorough, imaginative, manipulative... They couldn't beat him. Jim couldn't beat him.

But he could give him what he wanted, if it came to it. With all of Khan’s crew on board, frozen, it was easy to convince the man to come aboard. To meet him, alone, in his ready room had taken little more, since Khan was hardly afraid of them. Quiet, waiting, watching. Without Marcus to take his revenge upon he seemed almost like a different man. Kirk watched him in return, careful and uncertain.

He licked his bottom lip, bright eyes darting to the PADD he’d left of the table, before meeting Khan’s eyes again. Waiting. Had they been animals he didn’t doubt they’d be circling the table. After a long moment he took a step closer to pick up the document, handing it to the other man. It contained a short list of planets, habitable but empty, far out of the usual passages of Federation ships.

“I’ve been given the order to deal with you at my own discretion,” Jim told the taller man, his lips pressing into a thin like. He’d recognized the fear in the Admirals’ eyes, understood that they meant to do the same as Marcus without having to shoulder the responsibility for it. Did they think he’d throw the man into an airlock and release him into the vacuum of space, be done with it? What sort of captain- what sort of man, would he be then, aside from terrified? “The choice is yours. I’m leaving you and your crew with survival gear and basic tools, enough to build your own shelters without too much trouble, but nothing for space. You can rule the whole damn planet if that’s what you want.”

He ran a palm over his face, scratching at the bare shadow of stubble, and took a step back. Exhausted, more mentally than anything, and knowing many of his crewmates would probably growl (alright, Bones would growl, the others would reason) about what sort of choice he was really making, Kirk moved around the table to sink into a chair. “I’m leaving your crew with you. We have your cryotube- you have three hours to read through the data we have on these planets and make your choice. Afterwards I and Mr Spock will personally escort you to sickbay with a contingent of security officers. You will get back into your tube, Doctor McCoy will be handling the procedure to ensure that it is done properly and you will wake up, with the rest of your crew, on that planet.”

He leaned his head back, meeting the man’s curious eyes. “Deal?”

“Captain,” Khan called back in that singsong, “this is very generous of you.”

“Don’t,” he cut off with a hiss. “Please. Just- don’t.”

Khan arched an eyebrow at him. “Very well, then, Captain. Three hours.”

The chosen planet was… very similar to earth. Only two continents but mostly dominated by saltwater. Mountains, lakes, forests, deserts. He was surprised to discovered that Khan had asked they be released in an area far more arid than the majority of the world, but didn’t argue. Something about heat after a long winter, he thought. He’d set him on his new colony and be done with it. The augment crew would have no access to spacial communication nor space travel, and with their knowledge of technology antiquated by two hundred years they would hopefully lack the ability to build such ships, even rudimentary. Rulers, after all, where rarely the builders of any society. (Could Jim Kirk understand a starship? Yes. Could he repair one? Bits. Could be build one? Never.

So Khan chose. He was put to sleep. Seventy-two ‘human popcicles’ were beamed planetside in twelve shifts of six. Kirk and Khan, frozen, were sent last. Kirk surveyed the area they were in- an oasis amongst the desert, great tall trees with waxy leaves shading them, the rushing sound of water. He licked his bottom lip, pushing his hand through his hair.

With a sigh, Jim hoisted the hypo filled with tranquillizer Bones had given him. Keying in the code to cease Khan’s frozen sleep, he immediately plunged it into Khan’s neck. ‘For yer own safety,’ Bones had growled, hating to allow Jim to beam down himself, not trusting the ancient augment in the least. He’d already had Kirk on his slab once and that was enough for a lifetime. He slipped a paper describing the combination to release the rest of Khan’s crew in the curl of the man’s collar.

They really were the same, in the end, weren’t they?

Jim ran his fingers through Khan’s dark hair, pushing it away from the man’s face. After a long moment in which the young captain held his breath, he leaned down to press a delicate kiss on each of the man’s closed eyes. “Sleep just a little longer,” he sighed, his thumb knicking at the edge of the man’s sharp cheek, “and when you wake up you’ll have everyone you need.”

Jim stepped away and turned his back, surprised by the sudden tightness of his throat. He flipped over his communicator, his shoulders tight. “Kirk to Enterprise. Beam me up.”

Khan’s eyes flickered open. He sat up slowly, stiff from cold- blue-grey flickered to the spot Kirk had been, a moment ago. He ran his thumb over the line of his lashes before casting his gaze across the area to the seventy-two men and women waiting for him, frozen and young and perfect.

His eyes turned to the sky, gleaming. “Thank you.”

And that was the end. Or was it the beginning?


End file.
